Adventures in AI

As we enter the most uplifting time of the year, I hope this season brings you joy, renewed inspiration, and continued success as you craft elegant, emotionally rich historical romances that captivate devoted readers. After reviewing Her Impeccable Scoundrel, [emphasis mine] I was struck by its refined tension, nuanced character development, and the deeply human struggle between duty, trust, and long-buried emotion. Blythe’s fight to reclaim her reputation and protect her inheritance combined with Graeme’s complex return, carrying both guilt and longing creates an irresistible Regency narrative filled with redemption, vulnerability, and slow-burning romance. It is exactly the kind of elegant, emotionally resonant story our seasonal campaign aims to highlight.

(Note that there is a seasonal campaign coming up, for which payment by author will likely be required.)

Release day for Her Impeccable Scoundrel was November 18th. Hmm, how did the AI bot read it before sending this message?

No doubt you authors reading here have received messages like this from book clubs, famous authors, marketers and unsolicited reviewers. If you haven’t heard of this new scam, Writer Beware has several posts on the topic.

Imagining a Story Character

I have found AI marginally useful in creating character images for marketing memes. The image above is a depiction of the middle-aged hero in my most recent release, Lady Loughton’s Last Wager, a novella in the Merry Belles Bluestocking Belles with Friends Collection.

I also tried my hand at AI adjustments for headshots.

Here I am, riding with the highwayman to promote the Love’s Perilous Road collection at a Facebook party. (Ridiculous, right?)

A Real Time Suck

It’s easy enough to spend hours trying to translate the image in my head to the screen. One AI site creates one-size-fits all images of men. Every guy has a cleft chin, square jaw, and hot burning gaze. Ask for a lady in a Regency gown and you’ll get either Georgian hoop skirts or Victorian ones.

I suppose things will get better as AI steals from, copies, learns from humans. Or maybe when this human learns more about manipulating AI programs the result will be better images.

This Quarter’s New Releases

It’s been a busy few months with new releases, two fun projects with the Bluestocking Belles, plus a full length novel in the Wicked Widows League multi-author series.

Love’s Perilous Road, a Bluestocking Belles Collection with Friends

Release Day, October 31, 2025

Travel, houseparties, smugglers, spies, a ghost–and a mysterious highwayman. Who is the infamous Captain Moonlight? And how many lives will he change–for good or for ill?

It’s the autumn of 1817 and Sir Peter Somerville and his lady are hosting a house party at their estate near Brighton, while a pesky highwayman plagues the surrounding byways.

Includes my novella, Sir Westcott Steals a Heart.

Purchase link: https://books2read.com/u/mqx0W6

Her Impeccable Scoundrel

Release Day, November 18, 2025

A widowed countess emerges from her year of mourning battling the dark legacy of her husband and dreading the arrival of the straitlaced scoundrel whose interference years earlier led to her unhappy marriage, a young man who was once her friend: her late husband’s heir.

Called back to England to take up his late cousin’s title, diplomat Graeme Blatchfield is eager to see his cousin’s widow and learn for himself whether the rumors about the woman he once held a childish infatuation for are true. Forced by matters of the estate to spend time together, he soon discovers the vulnerable and lonely woman underneath the society mask. Can he get her to forgive him—and more?

Buy Link: https://books2read.com/HerImpeccableScoundrel

Merry Belles, a Bluestocking Belles Collection with Friends

Release Day December 20, 2025

Just in time for the holidays, seven charming stories of romance from award-winning and best-selling authors:

• A murder brings a lady and her lost love together, just close enough to heal old wounds. 
• A young lady must foil a friend’s betrayal to have her Yuletide wish for love come true.
• A widowed lord’s new housekeeper tames his rowdy boys and pierces his lonely heart.
• A lady determined to find her wayward young son finds herself stranded with the persistent earl trying to woo her out of widowhood.
• Will restoring a family manor together help two people acknowledge a secret attraction and claim a future together?
• A soldier’s wife is determined to find her missing husband, even if she must walk the length and breadth of England with her children in a wheelbarrow.
• Home from the wars, a soldier is shocked to learn that his fiancée plans to wed someone else. Can he reach her in time to prevent the nuptials?